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A news report claims Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom has threatened to ‘collapse’ President Akufo-Addo’s presidency in December 2020.

The Twitter account used to post this claim is not that of Dr Ndoum’s.

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According to an online publication by ghblast.com, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, founder of the Patriotic People’s Party and Chairman of Groupe Nduom, has stated through his Twitter platform that,

“U have made it a point to collapse businesses belonging to perceived enemies of yours. We shall also make it a responsibility to collapse your presidency in December. You’re a total disappointment too many. Many regrets.”

See below:

The story which was flagged to Dubawa as part of its Third-Party Fact-checking project, since it was published two days ago, has been viewed over 9100 times on Facebook alone. It has also been shared on Facebook pages here, here and here.

Just two weeks ago, another one of these fake tweets went viral, claiming the politician and businessman had stated that “NDC’s Naana Opoku Agyeman is far better than ‘talkative’ Bawumia”. This claim was found to be fake in a report published by Dubawa Ghana. 

Verification

Dubawa contacted corporate affairs representatives of Groupe Nduom. According to their official response,  Dr. Nduom has nothing to do with the post. A representative had this to say,

“It is a political time, all of these things will come out. That is why we have made it clear to everyone that this is Dr. Nduom’s official handle. Any other person who uses his picture or anything is not coming from us, it’s not coming from him, Dr. Nduom and if he wants to talk, he will use those handles and speak his mind or he will grant interviews if he so wishes”.

The office further stated that the press statement dated July 10th, 2020, concerning the use of a fake account, @papakwesijunior, applies to this case as well, adding that any tweet from any account other than @pknduom should be disregarded. 

See press statement below:

A Twitter search for the name Papa Kwesi Nduom revealed that other accounts, including the one responsible for the previous fake viral tweets, @papakwesijunior, exist under that alias with the names written differently including in his actual account @pknduom.

News reports discrediting these tweets have been published on various news platforms. See here and here also.

Other checks suggest that this tweet could not have come from Dr. Nduom. Case in point is the unprofessional use of abbreviations in the tweet such as ‘U’ instead of ‘You,’ which raises suspicion as to the personality in question.

Dubawa further checked from the official Facebook page of Dr. Nduom to verify if this post, associated with him has been posted there as well. The findings reveal that was not the case, reinforcing doubts about the false tweet, since this has been Dr. Nduom’s regular platform for all his public comments.  The page also reveals that the last post by Dr.Nduom was on July 5th, 2020, containing a YouTube link providing information on the GN Banks Court Case

Conclusion

The account purporting to be that of Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom’s is a fake account. The politician did not claim that the current President pledged to collapse businesses belonging to people perceived to be his enemies and that the PPP will make it a point of duty to collapse Akufo-Addo’s presidency in December. 

Yaw Buaben Asamoa, Communications Director of the NPP, claimed Ghana ranked last in the PISA 2013 test. 

Ghana has neither participated in nor been ranked in PISA since the programme started. PISA is triennial and is released every three years since the first one in 2000. There was no PISA test for 2013 and therefore Ghana could not have ranked last in a report that does not exist.  

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On Monday, July 6, the National Executive Committee of the largest opposition, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), unanimously approved Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as the running mate for NDC flag bearer, John Mahama, for the 2020 presidential election. 

On that same day, hours after the official announcement, Communications Director of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoa, addressed a press conference at the NPP campaign office at Kokomlemle where he put out the party’s reaction to the selection of the NDC running mate. Among the commentary he made, Buaben Asamoa claimed that Ghana placed last in the 2013 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). 

“In 2013 when Ghana was ranked last in PISA, she run away from the competition where Ghana could have taken the opportunity to roll out robust reforms in dealing with our educational challenges as a nation, yet she preferred not to be ranked at all”- Yaw Buaben Asamoa, of the NPP said.

About PISA

PISA is a programme developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for assessment of students. PISA is an acronym that stands for “Programme for International Student Assessment”. According to OECD, PISA measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. 

PISA is “not only the world’s most comprehensive and reliable indicator of students’ capabilities, it is also a powerful tool that countries and economies can use to fine-tune their education policies…to share evidence of the best policies and practices, and to offer timely and targeted support to help countries provide the best education possible” (Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General in PISA 2018; Insights and interpretations).

Countries volunteer to participate in PISA and once the PISA board approves the country, individual schools are chosen based on stringent criteria to represent all 15-year-old students in that country. The students are randomly chosen from among all 15-year-olds enrolled in grade seven or higher.

Verification

A thorough website search conducted showed that Ghana is not listed as one of the over 90 countries and economies that have participated in PISA tests since the year 2000. 

On the official website, the OECD states that PISA is a triennial test that is taken once every three years. The programme began in 2000 and every three years since, results have been announced. This means that since the year 2000, there have been seven PISA tests taken in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018. 

From this, it is clear that there was no PISA test for 2013. Ghana could therefore not have been ranked first of all, let alone be ranked last in a test that was never conducted.

Verifying further, we did a Google search to identify online portals which published the news item about the claim in question. The search yielded no result pertaining to Ghana ranking last in the PISA 2013 test. None of the state publications and websites of the mainstream media in the country published a story to that effect. There is no documented evidence that points to the claim that Ghana ranked last in PISA 2013.

However, the Google search produced results of publications relating to another ranking done by the OECD. 

The Global School Ranking, touted as the biggest ever of such rankings, was released in May 2015 and was based on test scores in 76 countries. It showed the link between education and economic growth. OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher, is quoted to have said while commenting on the report in 2015 that the ranking was the “first time we have a truly global scale of the quality of education” and that the idea is to “give more countries, rich and poor, access to comparing themselves against the world’s education leaders, to discover their relative strengths and weaknesses, and to see what the long-term economic gains from improved quality in schooling could be for them” 

Asia’s Singapore came tops in the ranking while Ghana ranked last in the 76^th position.

In spite of the fact that the Global School Ranking was done by the OECD, the analysis provided a much wider global map of education standards than the PISA tests, which focused on more affluent industrialized countries. According to the BBC, the rankings “were based on an amalgamation of international assessments, including the OECD’s PISA tests, the TIMSS tests run by US-based academics, and TERCE tests in Latin America” 

Then Education Minister Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman reacted to the ranking by saying that the data used to determine Ghana’s position in the Global School Ranking were from the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), noting that the ranking raised “ a number of concerns”. 

Conclusion

The claim by Communications Director of the governing NPP, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, that Ghana ranked last in PISA 2013 is not true. There was no PISA test done that year and according to the OECD website, Ghana has not participated in any PISA test since its inception. The country is not included in the list of countries and economies that have been involved in PISA.  Indeed, Ghana came last in a ranking done by the OECD but that ranking was the Global School Ranking and was done in 2015 and not 2013. 

Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is the Vice President of Ghana and the running mate of the flagbearer of incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo for the December 2020 elections. 

Dr Bawumia’s foray into politics started when he was selected by then flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Akufo-Addo to be his running mate for the 2008 elections. For the 2008 elections, Dr Bawumia is noted to have increased the NPP votes from the 2004 elections, particularly in three regions in northern Ghana, albeit the NPP lost in that election. However, in the 2016 elections, the NPP won and Dr Bawumia was sworn in as the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, on 7 January 2017.

Before his political career, Dr Bawumia served as a trained economist and banker. He is currently an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (U.K) (ACIB) and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (FCIB), Ghana. He also has several publications to his name including articles in journals and two books on Monetary Policy and Economic Development.

Dr Bawumia’s career as an economist and banker started as a lecturer for Monetary Economics and International Finance at the Emile Woolf College of Accountancy in London, England, between 1988 and 1990. He also worked as an economist at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, USA. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Bawumia served as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University in Texas, USA. There, he was awarded the Young Researcher Award in 1998. 

He returned to Ghana in 2000 and served as a senior economist at the Bank of Ghana. While at the Bank of Ghana, Dr Bawumia held positions such as the Head of Monetary Policy and Financial Stability, Special Assistant to the Governor, Capital Market Committee Chairman, Monetary Policy Committee Member, and in June 2006, he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank by former President J.A. Kufuor where he served till 2009.

Dr Bawumia was also a Consultant for the Economic Commission of Africa from February to March 2009.  In October 2009, he was appointed a Fellow of the International Growth Centre (IGC), where he served as an IGC Team Member for Sierra Leone.  He then served as an Advisor to the Central Bank of Sierra Leone on the redesigning of the organisational structure of the Bank and its monetary policy framework. In January 2010, Dr Bawumia was appointed a Resident Representative of the African Development Bank for Zimbabwe by the African Development Bank and served in that capacity until he was re-nominated as the Vice Presidential Candidate to Mr Akufo-Addo of the NPP ahead of the 2012 Presidential Election. 

Dr Bawumia has also served on some academic boards as a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia Liu Centre for Global Studies, in Canada and the UBC Fisheries Centre from April to October 2009; a Senior Associate Member of St. Anthony’s College at the University of Oxford; and a visiting professor of economic governance at Ghana’s Central University, between 2013 and 2015.

Dr Bawumia had his primary education at Sakasaka Primary School in Tamale and his secondary education at Tamale Secondary School. In secondary school, he was President of the Ghana United Nations Students’ Association (GUNSA) in 1981 and graduated the following year in 1982. 

He later had his tertiary education in the United Kingdom where he studied banking and obtained the Chartered Institute of Bankers Diploma (ACIB) at the Emile Woolf College of Accountancy, London in 1984. He also studied Economics at Buckingham University in 1987 where he obtained a First Class Honours Degree. He further obtained a master’s degree in Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, and a PhD in Economics at the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1995. Dr Bawumia specialises in the fields of Macroeconomics, International Economics, Development Economics and Monetary Policy.

Dr Bawumia was born in Tamale, on October 7, 1963, to the late former Chairman of the Council of State, and Mamprugu Royal and Paramount Chief, Mumuni Bawumia, and to Mariama Bawumia. He is the twelfth of 18 children of his father, and the second of five children of his mother.

Dr Bawumia is married to Samira Ramadan Bawumia, whose father was the former People’s National Convention (PNC) National Chairman, Ahmed Ramadan. They have four children together.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang’s political visibility began when she co-hosted the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) sponsored presidential debates in 2012. Shortly after in 2013, she served as the Minister of Education under the Mahama-led administration in a four-year term which ended in 2017. Prof. Opoku-Agyeman is now the Vice-presidential running mate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), alongside Former President John Dramani Mahama.

Before her political roles, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang was appointed the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in 2008, the first female Vice-Chancellor of a public university in Ghana. 

Before heading the university, she had, since 1986, served as head of the Department of English, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dean of the Board of Graduate Studies, and Founding Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research at the same university. 

She is presently the second female chancellor of Women’s University in Africa, Zimbabwe. 

Prof Opoku-Agyemang has chaired over 20 Boards and Committees. She is the current Africa Board Chairperson of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) where she has been a member since 2014. In October 2009, she was elected Ghana’s representative to UNESCO’s Executive Board and has since been re-elected for a second time.

Other Boards and Committees she has chaired include the Council of the University of Education, Winneba 1998-2002; Academic Committee of the Ghana Council for Tertiary Education, the Adjudication Committee, VALCO Literary Awards, Ghana 1993-1998; Board of Governors, Ghana Centre for Democracy Development (CDD-Ghana) since its founding in 1998 and, Board of Governors, Wesley Girls High School 1994-1998. She was also the Joint Co-coordinator of the Specialist Program in English Language and Ghanaian Culture for Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers from 1991-1993.

She is a member of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences; University Teachers Association of Ghana; English Studies Association; African Studies Association, USA; African Literature Association, USA; and the International Fulbright Scholars Association. She is the recipient of four honorary doctoral degrees; the Global Leadership Award; many national and international awards. She is also a two-time Fulbright scholar and is currently a Fellow of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL). She has authored many books like “The Handbook of Writing Skills”.

She has served as Academic Director of the School for International Training in the History and Cultures of the African Diaspora for 11 years. In March 2007, she was one of five scholars selected to deliver presentations during the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The Ghana Women of Excellence Award was conferred on her in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of quality education in Ghana. 

She obtained her Diplôme Supérieure d’Etudes Françaises from the Cheikh Anta Diop University, formerly known as the University of Dakar, Senegal in 1976, a B. A. (Hons) with a Diploma in Education from the University of Cape Coast in 1977 and Masters and Doctorate degrees from York University in Toronto, Canada in 1980 and 1986 respectively.

The Cape Coast-born academic icon was born on the 22nd of November, 1951. She is a grandmother and mother of three.

A Twitter account purported to belong to Papa Kwesi Nduom claims he has said NDC’s Naana Opoku Agyeman is far better than ‘talkative’ Bawumia

Papa Kwesi Nduom office says the tweet is not from him. The account which tweeted the claim is not the official Twitter account of the politician.

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A tweet by Papa Kwesi Nduom, using the handle @papakwesijunior, on Monday, July 6, 2020, said: 

“John Mahama’s running mate Prof. Jane Opoku Agyeman is far best than this current veep Bawumia. Mr. Talkative with no action…. If Nana Addi lose this years elections I wouldn’t blame anyone than Bawumia. A full time Comedian can’t match a Professor. #JJ2020 #4More4Nana #JohnMahama2020 #KickNanaOut #ImWithHer.”

That tweet has received more than 1,000 reactions and has been widely circulated. It has also formed the basis for some web publications such as the ones on My Africa Today, Cover Ghana, Report Ghana and a video by Social TV GH.

Just to give a little context, Paa Kwesi Nduom, officially called Papa Kwesi Nduom, is the founder of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), one of Ghana’s many opposition parties. 

Ghana’s largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), recently named Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang as its flagbearer’s running mate, making her a potential vice president if the NDC wins the December 2020 elections. This is the first time a major political party in the country has nominated a female as running mate.

Dr Bawumia is Ghana’s current vice president and running mate for the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

While it is possible for Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom to criticize Dr Bawumia because they are both at different ends of the political divide, the nature of the tweet and the obvious grammatical errors in it make it rather suspicious. 

Verification

We reached out to Papa Kwesi Nduom’s office, Group Nduom Corporate Affairs, for an official response.

“I can tell you on authority that it is not from Papa Kwesi Nduom. A lot of tweets from that account do not even make sense. We have reported the account to Twitter,” the office said.

Other independent checks carried out further indicate the tweet could not have come from the politician and businessman. 

Checks on Papa Kwesi Nduom’s active Facebook page where he makes all public comments showed no trace of the comment ascribed to him in respect of Dr Bawumia nor any indication that Papa Kwesi Nduom posted anything on Facebook on July 6, 2020 when the tweet was made. 

His website, which he actively used during his presidential campaign in 2016 also did not show any such comment. 

However, on the website, we found a link to all his official social media accounts including his Twitter, which listed a different account ID from the one that has gone viral.

On his website, his official Twitter ID is pknduom and not paakwesijunior, which made the viral tweet. 

The official Twitter account, created in March 2011, also shows a link back to his official Facebook page. 

The other Twitter account that made the tweet was however created in July 2019. 

While the pknduom account has over 200,000 followers, the paakwesijunior account, from which the news articles sourced the quote for their stories, has less than 600 followers.

In the bio of the paakwesijunior, it states that “You will bounce back in wealth @pknduom is my Godfather,” clearly suggesting that the account is not being managed by the politician and businessman Papa Kwesi Nduom. Therefore, the comments expressed via that account most likely do not represent him or express his sentiments. 

Conclusion

The office of Papa Kwesi Nduom says the tweet is not from the politician and businessman. Moreover, Papa Kwesi Nduom’s official twitter account is @pknduom and not the account from which the claim emanated.

Viral social media messages claim writing one’s name and phone number behind the new Voter’s ID card before lamination invalidates the card.

According to Dr Bossman Asare, deputy chairperson of the Electoral Commission, writing one’s telephone number behind the voters’ ID card does not render it invalid. It is, however, not “okay” to do so as it is not stated in the guideline and laws for registration.

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According to messages circulating on WhatsApp and other social media platforms, writing one’s contact details behind the new voter’s ID card before lamination renders it invalid. This, according to the messages, is because “any alteration other than the standards of EC, renders the Card invalid”.

The message reads:

“According to EC, your card becomes invalid if you write your name or number at the back. 
Any alteration other than the standards of EC, renders the Card invalid. 
EC would have provided that information if that would help to solve any lapses. 
This message is a calculated attempt by some individuals to disemphrachise some people. 
Writing your number at the back of your card also means you’re giving out your details to criminals. BE WARE”

This follows a message also circulated primarily on WhatsApp, which claimed directives are being given to individuals who have not yet registered to ensure that they request for their slip and write their telephone numbers at the back before proceeding to the lamination stage. According to the piece of information, by doing this, the cardholder will be able to retrieve the card should it get lost. The message reads,

“Notice!! Notice!! Notice!!
Have you registered already?  If you have, then, unfortunately, you’ve missed out. If you haven’t, then, take advantage of this.
At the final stage of the registration, just before your card is laminated for you, please, *POLITELY* request for the slip and write behind it your *Telephone Numbers*.
The *numbers* should be yours, spouse, child or any other number you trust to be active before it is laminated.
This will help you to retrieve it back if you happen to lose your card in future. Most often, when you go to the bank or other institutions that require our IDs, you will find found cards displayed. If these cards have telephone numbers of the owners behind them, the owners would have been called to go pick them up.

Verification

Electoral Commission’s standards for the voter’s ID card makes no mention of the need to append one’s contact number behind the card so that it can be found and returned to the cardholder if lost. 

Does writing your name invalidate your card?

According to a deputy chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Dr Bossman Asare, writing one’s telephone number behind the voter’s ID card does not render it invalid, even though “the commission hasn’t said that people should write their names or numbers on the back of their cards.” 

Dr Asare also confirmed that “one can vote without the card as long as the name is in the register.” 

What should you do if you lose your card?

On page 12 of the Laws of Registration under Article 42 chapter 7 of the 1992 constitution and in the frequently asked questions section of the E.C website, it is clearly stated that should a holder of the voter’s ID card lose his or her card, the person, within 7 days of realizing this should, 

“report the loss in person to the district officer of the Commission or to a police officer in charge of the nearest police station who will report the loss to the district officer of the Commission within 7 days of the receipt of the report”.

Conclusion

Your voter’s ID card does not become invalid once you write your contact details behind it. However, It is not advised to write your contact number on the back of your voter’s identification card. In the event of the card getting lost, the cardholder is to follow the stated procedure to retrieve the card. It is important to note that the individual will still be allowed to vote with or without the card, once his or her name is in the voter’s register.

 Prof. Opoku-Agyemang is the first female running mate of a major political party in Ghana.

Although over the years, there have been a number of female running mates for other political parties in Ghana, those parties were not considered major political parties in Ghana. The NDC has since 1992 been considered one of the two leading political parties in Ghana, and prior to the announcement of Prof. Opoku-Agyemang’s candidacy, the party has announced only male running mates for the presidential elections.

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On 6 July 2020, the presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), former president John Mahama, announced his running mate for the upcoming December 2020 elections to be  Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang. Following Mahama’s announcement, some international news stories, here, and here have highlighted that Prof. Opoku-Agyemang is the first female vice-presidential candidate for a major political party in Ghana. 

Some Ghanaian Twitter users have further suggested that other political parties who have had female vice-presidential candidates prior to Prof. Opoku-Agyemang’s candidacy are however not considered as major political parties in Ghana.

https://twitter.com/BBSimons/status/1280245055467532296

Verification:

In a compilation by some Ghanaian media here and here, the history of Ghanaian politics shows that Prof Opoku-Agyemang is certainly not the first female vice-presidential candidate to be announced over the years of constitutional rule in Ghana. 

Particularly for the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections, the polls witnessed three female vice-presidential candidates in the persons of Eva Lokko for the Progressive People’s Party (PPP),  Helen Matervi for the People’s National Convention (PNC), and Nana Akosua Frimpomaa II also known as Cherita Sarpong for the Convention People’s Party (CPP).

The parties considered to be major political parties in Ghana

The National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are the political parties in Ghana popularly described as the two leading political parties, or the two major political parties in Ghana. 

Since the 1992 Constitution, Ghana has had a multi-party political system, yet the NDC and the NPP political parties have notably amassed the highest votes among Ghanaian voters in presidential and parliamentary elections, and have remained the two main competing and formidable parties in the Ghanaian political landscape till date.

However, unlike other political parties in previous election years, none of these two leading parties had announced the candidacy of a female running mate till the NDC announced Prof. Opoku-Agyeman for the 2020 elections, thereby, making her the first female vice-presidential candidate of a major political party in Ghana.

Conclusion

The claim that Prof Opoku-Agyemang is the first female running mate for a major political party in Ghana is true. Although there have been a number of female running mates for other political parties in Ghana over the years, those parties are not largely considered as major political parties in the country. 

The party Prof Opoku-Agyemang is running for, the NDC, has since 1992 been considered one of the two leading political parties in Ghana, and prior to the announcement of her candidacy, the party have had only male running mates for the presidential elections.

“I am asymptomatic, I do not transfer” – Hon Carlos Ahenkorah 

While the WHO has stated that asymptomatic patients are less likely to transmit the virus, the global health organization and other health experts, have further stated that this knowledge is inconclusive and that global research is ongoing to ascertain this claim. Nonetheless, the CDC has provided evidence-based research on the transmission of the virus by asymptomatic people and how such persons have contributed to the spread of the virus in society.

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While it is true that COVID-19 has been quite dynamic, the transmissibility of the virus remains a constant theme among health experts. It is because of the lack of a definitive statement about the transmissibility of the virus that health experts urge individuals to observe all COVID-19 protocols.  

One of such protocols was reported to have been breached when a COVID-19 positive asymptomatic patient, Carlos Ahenkorah, member of parliament for Tema West and former deputy trades minister, who had been advised by his doctor to self-isolate, admitted to visiting his constituency’s voters’ registration centre where people had gathered to register for new Voter ID cards ahead of the elections in December 2020.

In an interview with Citi Fm, the former minister was asked if he announced to the Electoral Commission staff, with whom he interacted, that he was positive in order for them to be careful. 

In his response, he said:

“I always explain myself this way, that I am asymptomatic, I do not transfer…. If I do not show symptoms, that’s what the WHO says, this time after 10 days you can go without doing any other tests.’’

Mr Ahenkorah’s conduct has since been discussed extensively on mainstream and social media with many calling for his resignation which has been announced by the government.

Verification

Health experts on the transmissibility of asymptomatic patients

In a publication on 11 June 2020, the World Health Organisation stated that available evidence from contact tracing reported by countries show that asymptomatic patients are much less likely to transmit the virus than those who develop symptoms. 

The organization further added that, 

“Comprehensive studies on transmission from asymptomatic patients are difficult to conduct, as they require testing of large population cohorts and more data are needed to better understand and quantify the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2. 

WHO is, therefore, working with countries around the world, and global researchers, to gain better evidence-based understanding of the disease as a whole, including the role of asymptomatic patients in the transmission of the virus”. 

Other reports here, here, also indicate that the WHO and some health experts have stated that research is ongoing and that the transmissibility of asymptomatic patients is rare or unlikely is inconclusive. 

Other public health experts also state that although they “don’t know how much spread is caused by  asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic patients, there are some telling hints that it is a major driver of this pandemic.”

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a research publication, has also provided evidence on the transmissibility of the virus by asymptomatic people. The research indicated that asymptomatic people have contributed to the rapid spread of the virus in communities.

Dubawa also spoke to a Ghanaian medical expert, Dr Senyo Misroame at Tantra Community Clinic.

Dr Misroame stated that once a person has tested positive, they are required to be in isolation. Misroame added that in practice, patients in the Ghanaian community are not required to leave isolation until after 14 or 21 days when they have been cleared by tests.

He further explained that even though medical experts are not too sure as yet about the transmissibility of asymptomatic patients, it is not safe to take any chances, hence the caution to for people to adhere to safety protocols in each community.

“It is uncertain to know who has the virus or not especially if they do not show symptoms, that is why the protocols of wearing face masks, social distancing, regular handwashing have been advised strongly by health experts,” Dr Misroame said.

Conclusion

The claim that asymptomatic patients do not transfer the virus is misleading. Although the WHO has stated that asymptomatic patients are less likely to transmit the virus than symptomatic patients, the organization has also indicated that evidence about transmissibility is inconclusive, as global research is on about this dimension of the disease. While other medical experts remain uncertain of the transmissibility of asymptomatic people, they insist on the necessity to heed all Covid-19 safety protocols, especially as the CDC has provided an example of transmission of the virus by some asymptomatic carriers of the virus in society.

Over the last few months, we have not only had to deal with a pandemic but also with what the World Health Organisation (WHO) calls an ‘infodemic’. Separating truth from falsehood has been a major headache for members of the public.

We wake up to see such messages as “Share this information with your family and loved ones”, “forward to as many people as you can” on many social media platforms.

Since March this year when Ghana registered its index case of COVID-19, the Dubawa team has come across several COVID-19 related messages, especially on social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp.

Our fact-checking of these messages revealed similar results – the messages were either false or taken out of context. In fact, most of the posts flagged to Dubawa by Facebook as part of its Third-Party Partnership, especially on COVID-19 remedies, turned out to be false.

We have also observed that false information flying around at a particular time is determined by current happenings or major events. Therefore, different types of false information surfaced when there was no reported case, no report of any index case, during the lockdown and now as schools have resumed.

For instance, information that circulated when Africa had not reported a case claimed Africans were immune to the virus because of the hot climate. The narrative, however, changed after the continent registered cases.

Trend/ patterns of COVID-19 false information

We have noticed a trend in the kinds of COVID-19 related messages that have circulated on social media since the outbreak of the pandemic in Ghana. We put them into the following categories:

1. Denial of the existence of the disease in Ghana
2. Purported COVID-19 cures or remedies
3. Photos and videos taken out of context
4. Financial/ Internet Scams
5. Playing politics with COVID-19 
6. Conspiracy theories

1. Denial of the existence of the disease in Ghana

We found that when the disease started hitting other parts of the world, claims of African immunity and the inability of the virus to thrive on the continent on several social media platforms. Later when cases were registered, viral messages questioned or doubted the existence of the virus on the continent. Even when Ghana’s index cases were reported, old videos of health officials denying the presence of the virus in the country when no case had been recorded, were resurrected to say there was really no case recorded.

2. Purported COVID-19 cures or remedies

While the number of infections rises, purported remedies and cures for the virus also surfaced. This is a major theme that keeps recurring but was more widespread at the beginning of the pandemic in Ghana – as has been the case in other countries.

And they keep resurfacing, sometimes with just a little tweak to them. It is, therefore, not surprising to see a claim which has been debunked in March reappear on social media months later.

The problem with some of these remedies is that people who share them do not necessarily agree on what they are supposed to do. So in one breath, we have seen messages which claim eating a bowl of freshly boiled garlic can cure COVID-19 and others that say it can prevent the contraction of the disease.

We have also come across messages that say drinking alcohol (akpeteshie) can kill the virus that causes COVID-19. The logic behind this is that if using alcohol-based hand sanitizer will kill the virus, then drinking alcoholic beverages will do a much faster job.

This information is not only false but is also very dangerous as we have heard of instances in other parts of the world of people who have died from binging on alcohol after circulation of similar messages in their countries.

About two months ago, Sobolo (hibiscus tea) became very much sought after in parts of Ghana after a viral video claimed it had been used to treat and cure coronavirus in China. And messages to encourage Ghanaians to imitate Chinese by  using sobolo proliferated across the country.

Our verification process showed that none of the supporting documents mentioned by the claimant backed the claim. In fact, one of the documents was about a study conducted in 2016 – when the world did not know about this new strain of coronavirus, COVID-19.

That particular study was about how some selected tea extracts, including hibiscus tea, have shown effects on H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV).

It is worth mentioning that hibiscus tea, according to research, may be useful in treating viral infections. However, currently, there is no evidence it has been used to cure or can cure COVID-19.

Other remedies which have been popular on social media as preventive and curative remedies include the use of Dettol disinfectant, eating alkaline food or fruits, steam bathing (apun), inhalation of steam, eating ginger, lemon, gargling with saline solution, drinking lots of water, having loads of sex, chloroquine and hydroxyl chloroquine. Recently, there was a claim that people who have hair in their nostrils are unlikely to contract the disease.

3. Manipulated photos, Videos

Old photos and videos of events which happened prior to COVID-19 have reappeared online but with different captions implying they were incidents which happened during the current pandemic.

As mentioned earlier, these videos are tied to major events or happenings. Therefore, during the partial lockdown of parts of the country, several videos circulated of military brutalities, some of which later proved to be false.

For example, one viral video which found its way into mainstream media and was part of the evening news bulletin on a major TV station, claimed law enforcement agencies in Zimbabwe used force to enforce lockdown directives. The government of Ghana was, therefore, urged to imitate Zimbabwe. The video in question, however, had nothing to do with the pandemic but was of an incident which happened in 2019. Zimbabwe had not recorded a COVID-19 case at the time.

Photos of food distribution exercises during the lockdown period were also taken out of context. We found them to be unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photos of a weeping Brazilian president were said to be of Italian president who had lost all hopes due to the havoc COVD-19 was wreaking on his country. Stories of Italians throwing away money because it had become useless to them all featured on social media. Again, these were old photos rehashed but with different narratives.

4. Financial/ Internet Scams

In the face of the economic hardships resulting from the pandemic, scammers also took advantage of the situation to dupe (or try to dupe) unsuspecting persons.

Melcom was said to be giving out free vouchers; the WHO and phone manufacturing companies including Vivo to be running promos. Footballer Christiano Ronaldo was also purported to be giving out money to aid households affected by the pandemic and the Ghana Armed Forces undertaking ‘protocol’ recruitments.

Some of these claims had unsafe links which redirected people to fake websites, while others circulated dubious instructions for getting involved in said promos.

These were all false as parties said to be involved denied being that charitable.

5. Conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories on the origin of the virus and even its existence were and are still viral.

One photo claimed the WHO said it was unsure the virus exists on the African continent.

Others claimed Bill Gates is behind the outbreak, that it was planned years ago as part of his goal to get the whole world vaccinated. Some also claimed President Barack Obama had warned Africans against being vaccinated as it was an attempt by ‘white people to kill Africans with their toxic vaccines’.

6. Playing politics with COVID-19 

Another worrying trend we have observed was the exploitation of the current situation by political actors to either make their candidates look good or to discredit political opponents. We have seen messages attributed to major political figures including the President and his appointees, the former president and flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and members of his party. In all cases when we verified, the claims were false.

For instance, in March, a Facebook post which was flagged to Dubawa as part of its Third-Party Partnership with Facebook claimed that former President John Mahama said he would not contribute his money, which is earmarked for his campaign, to the COVID-19 fight. This claim we found out to be false.

Another post flagged to us by Facebook in April said the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, said he would resign from the presidency and withdraw from the December 7 elections if Ghana’s COVID-19 cases exceeded 500. This was debunked by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, when contacted.

How can you verify information on Social Media?

With the avalanche of information members of the public are being bombarded with day in and day out, how can we differentiate between true and false information? How can we do this, considering that despite several fact-checks, false information creators seem to be gaining the upper hand owing to the availability of sophisticated technology to aid them?

While it is sometimes difficult to authenticate information we receive on social media, there are a few things we can do to ensure we do not fall for them and inadvertently share false information we receive on false message-carrying platforms.

The first thing to do is NOT to immediately share or forward messages without verification, especially if they arouse in you strong emotions like fear and anger. It is sometimes a ploy by creators of false information to use you to gain traction. So VERIFY first, before forwarding to others.

Here are some tips to guide you:

1. Read beyond the headline: Unfortunately, headlines of some stories usually click baits, designed to get traffic unto another website designed by owners to scam readers. So read the entire content to get the full story. For instance, during the lockdown, we saw misleading headlines like this: ‘A total lockdown will be imposed if Ghanaians fails to adhere – Oppong Nkrumah warns.’ And just over the weekend, another sensational headline ‘Mahama arrested for defiling three girls’. Without reading the entire story, one will go away with a totally wrong notion.
2. Who is the source of the information? Pay attention to the ‘contact us’ or ‘about us’ section of the page to validate and verify content creators. Are they a credible source of information or just promoters of satirical websites? On Facebook and other social media platforms, explore the account of the source to ascertain the kinds of information they usually share.
3.  Check the author: If it is a random message on social media, find out who the writer is. Are they credible and are they even real? Beware of messages from ‘a friend’s sister who works in a hospital’, ‘a doctor in China’ and the ubiquitous ‘Didier Raoult. Does the author mention their source of information? Are they passing on factual information or are they just expressing their opinion?
4. Explore the supporting evidence: Click on hyperlinks embedded in messages and documents cited to determine if they actually support the claim being made – as Dubawa did with the claim that Sobolo was used to treat and cure coronavirus in China.
5. Check dates to be sure the message or information is not being used out of context. As has been exemplified from the very beginning of the pandemic in Ghana, old photos, videos and even textual content, unrelated to an event, can be rehashed during major crises.
6. Pay attention to the writing, language and format: Sloppy writing characterised by grammatical and spelling mistakes is a sign that the message is likely false. Note that a press release or message from a government agency is unlikely to be informal, contain ‘slangs’ or grammatical errors.
7. Pay close attention to the URLs: Many malicious news websites clone authentic sites with slight modifications to URLs. So we can have timeslive.co.za become t1meslive.co.za. Spot the difference? So a phoney or look-alike link may be an indication of false news.
8. For content which is devoid of grammatical and spelling errors and some of the tell-tale signs of ‘fake news’ mentioned above, check out what other users are saying about the post. Read comments and questions left under the post – they may lead you to the truth.
9. Videos and images are a bit tricky but still verifiable. Look out for visual cues or details in the photo or video – for example, shadows, reflections, street names, weather, odd body parts, lip synchronisation. Also, check comments by other users; sometimes they lead us to the truth. You can also use simple digital tools such as Google Reverse image search and Invid to authenticate photos and videos respectively.
10. Verify with other credible news or information outlets or with fact-checking platforms: Google can also help with this – just copy and paste a portion of the message in the search engine and see what it churns out.
11. You can ask for our assistance if you are unsure of information you receive. Contact us via WhatsApp: 0542 81 81 89, on Facebook @dubawa, Twitter @DubawaGh or via email @contact@dubawa.com. Alternatively, you can check our website, Ghana.dubawa.org for more. 

In conclusion, fact-checking or verification is very crucial in these times. It also yields results. From our partnership with Facebook, we know that about 95 percent of people who saw warning labels on posts which had been rated false by fact-checkers did not view the original content and therefore were not exposed to false information contained in them. Thus, when people are aware that the information they are about to consume is false, they avoid them. 

Therefore, it is important to continue fact-checking to debunk false information and ensure members of the public, social media users especially, have access to factual and verified information.

We continue to count on the support of relevant bodies in this endeavour.

Viral posts on Facebook and Whatsapp claim promotions are being run by various organisations. 

Viral Whatsapp message claims Jumia is offering gifts in spin and win promotion

Jumia’s PR and Communication Manager says the claim is false – it is not running a spin-and-win promotion.

Jumia, one of Africa’s leading e-Commerce platforms, announced the celebration of its 8th anniversary with different promotions on its mobile application platform and website. 

Following that announcement, two variations of a viral WhatsApp message claim that Jumia, is offering gifts in a daily spin-and-win promotion. 

The messages urge recipients to visit a website or its alternative to participate in the promotion, which is part of Jumia’s 8th-anniversary celebration.  

“JUMIA 8TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBTRATION: You Could Win Exciting Prizes in The Jumia 8th Anniversary Spin And Win giveaway. More and more people are winning daily, it could be your turn today. Hurry Now And Spin For Free. offer valid while stock last.

TERMS and CONDITIONS APPLIED. https://jumiawheel.store/?m=1,” one of the viral posts read. 

When users click on the link, it leads them to a website with Jumia’s logo on the top left corner of the screen; meanwhile, the favicon of the website is the logo of Google Blogger platform.  

It has a colourful image of a wheel of fortune with various items dotted around the board. 

It also has many Facebook comments of supposed testimonies of winners of the prizes. 

We sent an email to the PR and Communications Manager for Jumia Ghana, Bennet Otoo, to inquire about the information to which he responded saying “it’s a scam. Please ignore it. Not from Jumia.”

Dubawa also spoke to the Customer Care Representative at Jumia who confirmed that Jumia is celebrating its 8th anniversary. However, the representative clarified that Jumia is not offering any such promo of a Spin-and-Win giveaway. The representative stated that Jumia is rather offering discounts on certain products on its website. 

“This is a scam and should you click on the link, you could give such people access to hack into your phone,” the representative cautioned.

We realized that both websites attempted to clone the original website by adopting their traditional orange and grey theme colour. 

Both websites also embedded the same Facebook comments of people who claim they won prizes by participating in the promotion. 

Our checks on Who is to know further details about the website domains showed that both websites were registered recently – one was registered on June 23, 2020, while the other was registered on June 29, 2020.

We further found that Jumia has also issued an official disclaimer about the scam on its Facebook page. 

A Facebook post claims Vivo Phones Promo is giving out free phones to users

The claim has been debunked by the Company’s Local Representative in Africa, Jean Fidel Nyetam.

Another post, this time from a Facebook account also claims to be giving away free Vivo phones to users when they participate in a giveaway competition by typing the letters “VIVO” in the comment section and pressing send. The people with the fastest fingers would win brand new Vivo phones!

The motive, according to the post, is to,“… bless thousands of people”, thereby cautioning people who have already won prizes before from participating.

“WARNING: This prize is for people who have never won our prize before, please, if you have won an VIVO PHONE before, please stay away from this, let others also win.”

This post has been widely patronized by Facebook users resulting in 3,239 shares and 1.2K comments.

Dubawa spoke to Mr Jean Fidel Nyetam, the Local Representative for Vivo in Africa, and he stated that the company is not doing a giveaway on Facebook presently, 

“It’s false. These are maybe scammers or something related to that.” Mr Nyetam said.

Mr Nyetam went on to state that people need to be cautious of fake posts and ploys online. 

The Vivo newsroom website also makes no mention of a giveaway being done by the company. As a global tech company, it would be expected that that would be the first point of call to publish notice of a giveaway,  if indeed  such an event was in progress. This in itself is another red flag.

Furthermore, the Facebook account that posted “Viv0 givve away nyam” is riddled with typographical errors. The posts are not professionally written, with little or no detail given to customers about the company’s image. This would be self-sabotage if indeed Vivo posted the message. We see this as another red flag.

Most Vivo accounts on Facebook are verified like VivoIndia, Vivo.philippines and the main Vivoglobal Facebook page. The account in question, Viv0 givve away nyam, is not verified. It is neither followed by nor does it follow the Vivo global page. 

Finally, none of the company’s other verified social media accounts like Vivo_global on  Instagram, or Vivo_India on Twitter has published news of any giveaway being done by the company.

Conclusion

Neither Jumia nor Vivo is running a promotion. Citizens are advised to disregard such misinformation and are advised not to click on any associated link which may expose their phone or computer to scammers.